a lot could change elections, we can't see things coming down the road. if anyone was placing a bet right now you'd have to bet on romney. >> fred bruni, it's been a pleasure talking to you. thank you very much indeed. >> thanks for having me. hello. i'm monita rajpal at cnn london. the headlines this hour. containing the debt crisis and saving the euro. those are the long-term goal of a second debt-moving palg package for greece approved on thursday by the euro teen leaders. it also lowers interest rates and extends payback times for existing loans. of course we'll have much more coming up on "world business today" in just a moment. a building on fire. the person who videotaped the

scenes says the bodies of women and children are inside. they say armed thugs and syrian tanks are randomly shooting and wrecking property. at least ten people were killed on thursday as security forces attempted to crush protests. >> two "news of the world" executives are disputing rue put murdock's testimony. they say murdoch misled the committee last week when he said he was not i ware that the hacking went beyond an e-mail. the steamy heat that's been roasting the midwest, u.s., is now heading to the east coast. some 60 temperature records were shattered on saturday. they blame the heat for at least two deaths. in minneapolis the marquis reads we have air conditioning. who cares what's playing. those are the headlines from cnn, the world's news leader.

i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. >> and from cnn hong kong, i'm manisha tank. these are the top stories on july 22nd. now the real test is what do investors have to say about it. deadlocked. debt talks may be little progress as a default deadline gets closer. and the uk phone-hacking scandal takes dramatic new twist as james murdoch is accused of misleading mps. before all that, a bailout and a default of sort. european leaders in brussels have reached a deal to give greece a second bailout. and as you can see, that's been pretty well received on the

european stock markets. european policy makers hope the deal, which is worth almost a quarter of a trillion dollars will contain europe's debt crisis and give greece more breektding room. jim boulden explains. >> after more than seven hours of talks here in brussels, the leaders of the euro-zone, the imf and the european central bank have struck a deal that they say will calm the markets, will help greece, and will help the euro. first of all, they agreed to a second loan for greece, 109 billion euros. they'll also give greece more time to pay off its bills and at a lower interest rate. the first person to come out and announce this deal was president sarkozy. this is what he had to say about the new deal for greece. >> translator: i want you to understand, fully gauge the importance of this decision. it is a weighty, mighty decision. we're saying very clearly greece is a very specific case and what

we are doing for greece, we will do for no one else, no other country. >> as part of this, there's more support for what's called the esfs. this is the facility they use to help countries that are in trouble and they say it will give new rules to this lending facility and they will also be helping this facility to be more flexible. the president of the european council explained that -- he says to the markets that with this new facility, they mean business. >> the financial stability facility will get more flexibility to intervene because through the assistance, recapitalization through banks and governments including in nonprogram countries and secondary market interventions in exception at circumstances on the basis of analysis by the central european bank. >> was greece at fault? that was asked of jean-claude trichet. this is what he had to say.

>> what is important in our view is the condition that greece is an absolutely exceptional situation and that for that reason it requires exceptional and unique solutions. >> who will decide whether this is a game-changener the euro-zone as many of the leaders were saying, that will be the markets. we'll see how the markets react come friday. jim boulden, cnn, brussels. and we have indeed seen how those markets have reacted. they're broadly speaking as manisha was showing up two minutes ago speaking up. the bond markets reacting, yields coming down on that. some of the euro bonds being slightly less risky. i spoke with an analyst earlier today and he said for the moment some seem relieved by the decisions made in brussels. let's go to david jones. he joins us live from london. good to see you again, david.

how relieved are you over what was said in brussels overnight? >> i think it's very fair. we've seen a good recovery yesterday ahead of the announcement, expecting good news and we have seen those gains held on today. we see for example here in london the ftse is a little bit higher, 0.7% a little higher. the euro built on gains overnight. italian bonds, but i do thinking the risk is that it's maybe just a short-term relief that we're seeing in the markets. we've had so many false stones for this year on the crisis, the last year and a half. let's see where we are in a week's time. today it is undeniable there's much more optimism around financial markets. >> you must have thought nerves of steel, david. >> i think it's incredibly volatile. if you look at what the euro is doing, first thing it was selling off very heavily against the u.s. dollar. it dropped a cent and a half on

the dollar. then as expectations built, we saw we were going to get a good result in the evening we saw it rally about 3 cents. even though we've seen good gains over the last 24 hours or so, one thing we've learned is that sentiment can turn incredibly quickly. so i think the test will be going into next week, do we still see the same levels of confidence. i think some people, with what mr. sarkozy was saying last night, this is clear. this is just for greece. i think some people in the markets are worried this will come back to bite them at some point in the future. >> so effect live i what you're saying is the statement was supposed to be delaying fierce but it's not. some are still worried about italy and spain. >> that's definitely the phrase. a phrase has come out in the last six months, any various

bailouts that were proposed, we're kicking the can down the street, pushing the problem further away, but the problem is still will. i think markets will need to see after digesting what's going on that actually this is a solution to the problem. i think the risk is i don't see how we can necessarily say that spain and italy are insulated from this and maybe we'll have to revisit them in a few months' time. >> and then again, the orders of magmy attitude, david, get bigger and bigger. that's about $155 billion. these are massive figures here. >> it's an absolutely enormous figure. we've become almost immune it to in the last year and a half as the enormous numbers get bandied around. we're talkinger the euro version of the imf which is a fantastically ambitious plan. their concern is because of the nature of the problem they're

always maybe a couple of steps behind where the problem is. it can mushroom out of control month month into even bigger numbers. i don't think necessarily this is the end of the euro-zone problems and then it's back to business as usual. thing we may all have the discussion in call of months' time. >> david jones, as always, many thanks for your time there. manisha. >> that's the view. jim boulden also spoke to the new head of the international monetary fund christine lagarde who gives her take on the euro agreement. >> we have partners with the european mems, we, the imf, and we will continue do so on our terms and conditions with board approval, you know, with a view to making sure the countries and the program can come back to market and can, you know, restore growth and have a better sustainable debt. so it's a different role, yes. >> and you think this was a

momentous occasion, was it or -- >> i think it was game-changing, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> very interesting, the new head of the imf. we'll have a full interview with christine lagarde lateener the show. nina. we've seen how it's affecting the stock markets. let's see how it's affecting the government bonds. some of these yields have come down, but that means investors are saying at least for the moment some of these bonds are a little bit less risky. this is actually a market that's worth no less than $80 trillion and as such it's twice the size of the world's security market and this is why we're going to take look at it. we're going to take a look at the ten-year bonds. two of the three that have been bailed out, greece has received another bailout as we heard from jim boulden.

15.4% for grease and 11.2% for portugal. if you take a look at italy and spain -- italy is another country that people are worried about. these yields, as you can see, are very, very different. this is where the cut-off point comes. it's the sort of magic number, if you like, that analysts and economists say is the cut-off point beyond which these countries will find it difficult to access the markets, the financing. it's 7.0% as you can see. i apologize for my bad handwriting here. 7.0%. it's one of the reasons why countries like greece, for instance, thood go to the imf and ecb for funding and needed bailouts. now, the other things that the markets have to look at is what's called the spread. this is the difference between the least risky euro-zone debt, which is obviously germany, a country which is the euro-zone's largest economy, plenty of cash in the bank.

it's very unlikely this country would ever default on its debt and italy, which is next in the fire. as you can see, the spread is essentially the difference between these two. and as you can see, that stands at around 2.7%. that is why analysts and investors say they're worried about italy because the spread is widening and it means that investors will ask for more interest to hold ten-year italian bonds because they're perceived as being more risky. manisha. well, let's get some market reaction here in asia. the news out of europe really did boost investor confidence over here. you can see the numbers here. hang seng climbinging over 2%. it's moving up quite strongly. heavy weights like hsbc, up more than three-quarters of 1%.

standard charter. about 3.5% this session. these are all big names to watch. a very big reaction. and now the headline is going to be what happens with the u.s. deadline. speaking of the united states, there was plenty of relief on wall street on thursday, again, because of the news of the european debt deal. that sent investors reaching for their wallets. at the close the dow is up 15250. the s&p was up one and a third per senn. let's take a look at how the markets are going and how things are set for when trading begins on friday. that's how the futures are looking. we're looking cautiously optimistic, i would say, nina. well, it's le than two weeks to go, nina, until the u.s. could default on its $14.3 trillion worth of debt. they met with president barack

obama on thursday. cnn spoke with jong king about why some in the president's party are very angry. >> they held a meeting with the president here at the white house for nearly two hours. it's never terribly good that it went on that long. no one is speak publicly about it but i'm speaking with some democrats on the hill who are still very upset after that meeting. the bottom line is they approved these outlines of a possible framework of a deal and some democrats are concerned that, a, it's happening too late and, b, that it will jam democrats into agreeing on something that doesn't go far enough on the positions they care about and they'll ultimately be in a position to agree with the president and raise the debt ceiling or raise the debt default that's untenable in their view. >> let's dig into the details. what do we know about the framework that's being discussed as far as the democrats alike. >> based on reporting today,

this broad outline, which, granted, has not been agreed to, would be a roughly $3 trillion deal that would have about $1 trillion in spending cuts, some of which would kick in immediately, some would be spread out over time and then there would bo a tax component, an entitlement component that would happen after the debt ceiling is raised. but other democrats -- and i should point out that the democrats that we're talking to who are upset are frustrate and concerned that the tax component might not have teeth or go far enough for them. but other democrats say, whoa, wait, no details have been agreed to. how can northbound be angry when we don't have a deal and no one knows specifics. jessica yellin speaking to cnn's john king. along with on six to the party the president is dealing with some republicans who are opposed to raising the debt ceiling at all. such a drastic move would require them to cut spending by

almost half overnight. the storm around rue put murdock's corporation has just got even bigger and now some members of the parliament want to know if murdoch's son james mislead them during the hacking investigation. we're going to have more on that just ahead. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit... with all you need to enroll.

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welcome back to cnn hong kong and london. this is "world business today" today. james murdoch is on the defensive again. he's taking the defensive that he was accused of lying on tuesday. two former top executives from the "news of the world" say that the younger murdoch misled the committee on an e-mail apparently showing that hacking was widespread of the tabloid. say that after murdoch saw the e-mail he authorized a huge

payout to the hacking victim to keep them quiet. murdoch is standing by it. a statement from news corp says james murdoch stands by his testimony to the select committee. it seems that it may spread to the u.s. operations. nbc news is reporting that the u.s. justice department is investigating allegations that news corp has been hacking into the computers. the case ended when news corp bought the rival's assets for almost $13 million and now australia years regulators. news corp is a part owner of fox tell. they say the decision has nothing to do with the hacking scandal in brittain. >> and while we're on the

subject of resignations. britain's prince andrew stepping down at the britain's special representative for international trade. he's been acting as official envoy for more than ten years and during that time he's been facing blistering criticism. he announced the news in his annual review. he said, quote, i have decided that the label i gave myself when i began this role as speshlg representative has served its purpose and is no longer necessary to the work i do. well, prince andrew has been accused of lacking the judgment needed for the job he's just given up. let's take a look at the latest travesties that have led up to his departure. in march he acknowledged it was a mistake to meet with jeffrey epstein, a convicted sex offender. he turned to epstein to help pay off the debts of the prince's former wife sarah ferguson. last year an article pub lived

by wikileaks painted an unflattering picture. it verged on the rude during a 2008 meeting. and in november of 2008 british media reporting that andrew met with libyan media gadhafi after they were on holiday with a convicted gun smuggler. now he's known as the god of cricket, a shot at making cricketing history. this weekend we'll have all the details just ahead when "world business today" today continues. with your mortgage,

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you're watching "world business toda today"live on cnn. now severe storms across central europe caused problems for many travelers yesterday. let's check in with jennifer delgado for the latest conditions. unfortunate unfortunately, jen, every time i check in with you it's because of problematic weather. it's not nice. >> absolutely not. across poland it actually turned deadly. severe storms were going to pop up and they did. go to the video. i'm going to show you what's been happening there. look at this video here. heavy rainfall across the region. you see lightning popping up in the background, flooding across this area. here right here this video showing you a street that virt yoolly looks like a river. the rain came down in some locations roughly 35 centimeters

of rainfall in a short period of time. emergency crews trying to drive through this because so many people were stranded because of the heavy rainfall. now, as i take you back over to the radar, we're once again dealing with rain across parts of europe. stronger storms moved through denmark as well as eastern areas, including parts of germany. we're going to continue to see the stormy condition because this aerial pressure is going to be sitting and spinning as we go through today, tomorrow. that means more heavy rainfall for poland. if you're going to be traveling through parts of eastern europe, expect delays. this will last today. then by saturday we'll start to see some improvement. the severe weather threat will go away but we're also going to be dealing with scattered showers across central europe. manisha, while it is going to be rainy as well as potentially more storms across europe, it's going to be hot once again across the u u.s. look at the numbers yesterday. look at this for iowa, 51 degree

dee degrees celsius, 47 degrees celsius. typically you see something like this through parts of the middle east but it's been extremely hot through the u.s. and it's going to continue today. back over to you, manisha. >> anecdotally, jen, i heard people were going to the movies and watching any movie that was on so they could sit in an air conditioning place. >> absolutely. spend 20g just to get some free air. >> i don't know if it was clean air, but that's a whole different thing. at least it was air. >> expensive air these days. >> yeah. nina. >> plenty of cool air over here in lauchblt i can definitely tell you that. the new face of the imf has weighed in on what she has called a momentous situation. we'll hear what christine lagarde has to say about the second greece bailout package.

hello and welcome back to "world business today." i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. >> and i'm manisha tank at cnn hong kong. recapping the top business stories at this hour, european markets are up strongly this friday, agreeing to give greece a second bailout and they've decided to lower interest rates on all bailout loans, lengthen the repayment periods and give them new. >> they discussed a framework of a deal to raise the u.s. debt limit. but some democrats say that they feel rushed and that they won't like any agreement that doesn't include tax increases alongside

spending cuts. and top news corp. executive james murdoch is denying he was mistaken when he testified to a parliamentary committee that he did not know about an e-mail. they say they told murdoch about the e-mail which apparently showed that more than one journalist was hacking phoneses. let's go straight to the european markets. we're 19 minutes into the trading session and broadly speaking these markets reacting positively to the news out of brussels last night when eu ministers decided to agree to a second bailout pack ang for grease. handset sales fell during the second quarter of 2011. the cell phone maker lost $535 million. its revenue was down by more than 7% but it could have been much worse. the stock actually closed up many than 3% in frankfurt on

thursday and almost 6% higher in new york. it's currently trading at about 1.8% up on the frankfurt stock exchange as we speak. nokia smartphone sails were overtaken by iphone sales during the second quarter of the year. ed on the back of the debt deal agreed in brussels on thursday the euro is trading higher against the u.s. dollar. as you can see it's plunged more than 3% against the greenback now trading at $1.44. let's look at the british pound. that's worth $1.63. and when it comes to the yen you can get 78.61 yen for each dollar. let's check out the song market action here in asia. it's been a positive ending to a caution week. similar to what we're seeing happening in europe. but definitely a bigger reaction than the one we've seen in europe so far. banking stocks really pushing to the upside.

among them hsbc and standard chartered putting on a very good showing. china's biggest bank is expected to post a profit exceeding $31 million this year. they made that prediction on thursday. he also said the bank should deliver earnings growth of at least 21% for 2011. he said the bank's business is booming thanks to its diverse revenue sources and surging economic grouchlkt his projection is pretty much in line with expectations. icbc's shares closed 2.1% higher. on wall street they had plenty to digest. alison kosik has the latest. >> the across-the-board gains came iowa after a big headline. it helped offset lackluster read on the jobs front and that deal

on the greek debt crisis provided a spark as well. at the close, the dow surged 152 points to and at 12,724. the sixth triple-digit gain in three weeks. 29 of of the 30 companies ended higher. the nasdaq and s&p also rose. more began stanley jumped more than 11% on the day even though the bank posted a loss in the period. it still beat forecasts. at&t's shares gained modest leads, even though profits fell by 10%. the company pointed to strong wireless sales. at&t was the first carrier to sell apple's iphone. on the economic fund a closely watched, climbing more than expected. weekly jobless claims also rose though that's not good news. first-time claims increased by 10,000 last week to 418,000. analysts were expecting them to hold steady. that's a wrap of the day on wall street. i'm alison kosik in new york.

well, if the economic news lets you down like that jobs numbers, the earnings numbers will pep you up. microsoft waited until after the bell in new york to announce its earning, reporting a 30% spike in its fourth quarter net income, and that comes to a shade under $6 billion. revenue for the quarter was up 8% to $178.4 billion ahead of expectations. nina, what global financial crisis that we were in, huh? >> certainly a very different story, isn't it, when you talk about equities versus bonds. let's go back to our top story this morning, manisha. the debt deal with jim boulden. he spoke with the imf's new managing director christine lagarde. >> the united states and government of the euro-zone showed a real daeretermination defend the zone, to make sure

greece was taken care of and had a comprehensive package. number two, i thought that they -- the overall agreement that they reached was both comprehensive and constructive. so it would be those three things. collective approach, comprehensive, and constructive. >> first questions you've been asked in all the press conferences is greece now in selected default? what is your view on that? >> i have to review on that. i tell you why. it's not for me to take a view. what i see and what i hear from my greek counter part, the prime minister pap andrew is there have been negotiations by the representatives of the imf and on a voluntary basis they have come to the table and they now have an option of choices that they can select, and it's really for them to pick and choose what is best for them. so i don't see, you know, anything other than a voluntary move and determination to join

the pack. >> from the imf point of view, does this mean you're less likely to have to enter into other bailouts beyond the second bailout for greece and europe? i mean do you have a sigh of relief now for the imf's bank accounts? >> don't forget we are engaged with three countries. greece is one but you also have ireland and portugal. so i was very, very pleased to see that the extended maturity, reduced interest rates would apply not only to greece but also to ireland and portugal. and that's really a move in the right direction because it makes the -- it lients the burden, so to speak, and it will make, you know the task of reimbursing, reforming, organizing the fiscal consolidation easier for all three countries. >> in the past you've been in these meetings as the finance minister of france. you're now the head of the imf. anything different? were you there as a consensus

builder today? >> all i can tell you is that the president has present eed a standing invitation for me to attend so he was probably happy with me. >> is it different from where you're coming from? you have a very different role to play. >> yes, it was different actually. it was different in the sense that we have partnered with the european members, we, the imf. and we will continue to do so. on our terms and conditions. with board approval. you know, with a view to making sure that the countries and the program can come back to market and can, you know, restore growth and have a better sustainable debt. so it's a different role, yes. >> and you think this was a momentous occasion. >> i think it was -- i think it was game-changing, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> christine lagarde there. very interesting because now she's on a different side of that fence, so far as europe

goes. now, in cricket, this is going to be a momentous few days. the 2000th test match of all time is under way here at the so-called home of cricket. cricket fans out there will know this is lords of london, a very, very famous place. by coincidence the match between england and india is the 100th between two nations. there's an obsession with statisti statistics. cricket is often considered inp inpenetratable to outsiders. this guy is one of the greatest men to walk. from 2009 it was reported that he took home more than $8 million, not bad for a cricketer. and the dim mine youive indian

could rewrite the record machlt he's targeting his 100th international century. that's 100 runs in a row and that's a big deal. now, the only problem that he might face, have you spotted it yet? it's this. the british weather. this was the scene yesterday. check out the clouds. now, it's his record at large we need to talk. it's notoriously poor. despite an average score of 57. at lords the average is -- there you go -- 21. if he kunlt achieve it in this historic match it's only a mat owner when, not if, he'll hit 100. you can tell i'm very excited about this. i'm a huge cricket fan. i will hopefully get a chance to watch it. >> i'll tell you what, manisha. better you than me. i'm fine with the bond market. when it comes to rules of

cricket, i haven't got a clue. if you want, get in touch with the whole business team on facebook page. you can go to facebook.com/cnnwbt. get in touch and let us know your thoughts perhaps about manisha's ability to understand the rules of cricket and my ability to just about understand the rules of the bond market. who knows. >> each to their own, that's all i can say, nina. unfortunately that's all we've got time for. that's it for this edition of "world business today." i'm manisha tank at cnn hong kong. >> and i'm nina dos santos in london.

this week on "marketplace middle east," protecting an economic lifeline as another explosion stops gas flowing from egypt to israel, we take a look at the bedouin's charge with securing the pipelines, plus rebuilding after revolution. how tunisia is boosting its brand and looking to strengthen its business times. promised reforms have done little to help with political uncertainty.

thousands of protesters remain camped out. among those he has named to his cabinet is a new finance minister who's challenged with writing an economy in turmoil. his tenure begins as an important source of income where egypt suffers yet another setback. fred palette begin explains. >> reporter: it feeds gas to israel and jordan on july 12th, the fourth such attack this year. this vital lifeline for israel's energy security runs through peninsula buried under a sand berm. they have virtually no authority here. it's the bedouins who guide the pipeline. this man is paid 500 egyptian pounds or around $80 a month. a joke, he says. he claims he doesn't have enough

men or guns to make a difference. >> translator: 500 pounds is nothing, he says. we try to guard the pipeline because it's in our area, but at night there is no protection at all. the pipeline stretches for miles. it's a very populated and lawless area and therefore the pipeline is always vulnerable to attacks. pumping stations like this one along the route are prime targets. hitting one of these can disrupt gas service for weeks. >> translator: we focus on protecting these pumping stations this bedouin sheikh says. a tax on the gas grid has spiked since the egyptian revolution and the social and political turmoil have followed. it's unclear who is sabotaging the pipeline. many are against the country exporting its natural gas to israel because of the

israel/p.i.n. conflict. others say egypt is selling the prices well below market averages. even an executive for the country's executive gas holding country says egypt is getting a bad deal. >> i consider it as the biggest mistake i've ever made to export natural gas. >> reporter: for its part israel says it's paying a fair price, but the deal which covers about 40% of israel's natural gas needs has increasingly become a liability. every day the line is cut, costs them about $2 million, the israelis say and it interrupts tax flow to superior zahn and parts of egypt itself. that's why cairo appears to be getting tougher. saw these men building a guard shack next to this gas pumping station. they later confirmed it's for army units that are set to deploy there to protect the pipeline. for "marketplace middle east,"

fred pleitgen. >> they ruled out the normalizing ties as the country skplors its role in the marketplace today. part of its business is to reconnect with business ties with europe. >> reporter: these are the remnants of a revolution. this is a warehouse of a tunisian appliance maker burned down by protesters last january. operations shut down and hundreds of jobs were lost. another motor vehicle manufacturing plant suffered the same fate. >> this was the assembly line. >> reporter: is now picking up the pieces to restart its business. >> we used to be 100% market share and right now our aim and objective is to regain this position and become the number one in tunisia. >> reporter: tunisia's industrial base is key to the

economy. unlike its neighbors, hydrocarbons here are scarce so manufacturing with tunisia's skilled labor force and cheaper costs are prime assets. that's long broad on international investors, a particularly european. >> european union is the first background to tunisia, maybe 80% of the foreign trade and 80% of the foreign investment coming from europe. >> reporter: with the global financial crisis, many more european companies moved their operations to tunisia due to cheaper costs, but then this year's revolution took investors by surprise. tunisia's ties with europe stem all the way back to the roman empire, and that relationship hasn't changed. european companies have benefitted from tunisia's close proximity and cheaper production costs but now with fresh concerns about security and political instability, tunisia faces the threat of losing

millions in foreign investments. the government says foreign direct investment is down 23% this year since the revolution. 41 companies were forced to shut down and nearly 3,000 jobs lost. this is a uk-based company that launched in 2008. >> when we lookedal all the different countries, really for us tunisia was one of the best countries to start investigating more closely, and the other advantage of tunisia obviously is that it is very well interconnected with europe. >> reporter: the company doesn't start construction for another three years. elections to decide the feature are going to be decided this october. that means like other businesses they're in a holding pattern. think it's become more challenging now given we have a period where we have to wait and see how this situation now

developments. >> as tunisia enters a new air remark getting its economy back up and running will crucial and it will be eager to maintain its links to the international community, particularly its largest market, europe. re-establishing global business ties are are high on the agenda. the rebuilding branch is also a major prerogative. when we come back. [oinking] [hissing] [ding] announcer: cook foods to the right temperature using a food thermometer. 3,000 americans will die from food poisoning this year.

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it was the country that sparked the wash of unrest that has been sweeping the region for these many months and now tunisia is trying to get itself

back on track. unlike its neighbors tunisia does not sit on top of vast oil and gas reserves so it relies heavily on tourism. in 2010 it represented around 6% of the top gdp. it brought in more than $2.5 billion and employed around 400,000 people. but the tourists disappeared. now the country's tourism minister says he believes tracking investment will plant the seeds of future growth. right now we need to refresh our infrastructure, technical and non-tech neck call. i.t. we need to convince investors that with this new infrastructure they could -- they will have the chance to use tunisia as a platform to sell their products and services to africa. this is the new position of tunisia. >> there is some concern that

investors because of the uprisings in tunisia specifically may take a three-year break from investing. does that worry you that they take a break like that. >> we know exactly what we can do in tunisia. i can tell you that china's not going to wait more than three months. they came to visit us and said we want to use tunisia as a platform to sell our products and services in europe and in africa, and i think they have a good vision. >> there's been a euro med project within the european union going back to the mid-1990s and then it stalled because of security concerns and immigration after 9/11. does europe need to step up its corporation in north africa? >> no. we have to rebuild the immigration. immigration is a problem, but we don't -- we can't solve the immigration by building a wall. we solve the immigration by building a strategy, north,

south. it means we have to convince our people that it's better to build the future in tunisia and going in europe. this we can do it with the help of european people and european countries. >> most people say in europe that you need a rule of law and constitutional changes before europeans come in. but isn't that strategically a mistake for europe to wait for the constitutional changes and the rule of law in north africa before helping? >> yes, because they understand what we've done. re-electing presidents in tunisia should have been a big mistake because our constitution is made more difficult. so we decided not to re-elect the president right now but to change our constitution. it means that we are ready, ready for this democracy. but it takes time and we are in the process and we're not going to fail.

we're going to succeed. so waiting for this election is nonsense because this election is only an election to rewrite the constitution. >> once again, the tunisian tourism minister. and for more about it, visit our website, cnn.com/mme or send your e-mails to us. check out the arabic page as well. and that's it for this edition of cnn "marketplace middle east." i'm john defterios. thanks for watching. we'll see you next week.